7 Full Service Marketing Terms You Should Know

Similar to many other industries marketing experts can become heavily reliant on industry lingo when discussion marketing activities and campaigns. That's perfectly fine when speaking to industry insiders but can go over the heads of others who may be new to the industry, doing research, potential clients who are deciding to bring in an agency and the public at large. For those who aren't familiar with industry jargon below are few Full-Service Marketing terms that will be used time and again learn these and you'll be well on your Way

Full-Service Marketing Agency

This term refers to a company that can handle all of your marketing needs. From Strategy to execution and everything in between a full-service agency as the term implies is full service. They can research your target demo identify trends and come up with a strategy to reach that demo using different paid and sometimes earned media sources. The outlier in some instances may be Public Relations which falls in another bucket if the firm you're considering doesn't handle PR they probably have a company on their network that does

One marketing plan, two different brands see how we made this work to both their advantages.

Media Planning

Media planning is the process in which your full-service firm chooses the right pieces of media or mediums to get your message out to the target demo. 99% of the time this planning should be based on a mix of the research that is done on or about your target demo and brand specifically and the experience that a firm or the individual planner brings the table dealing with brands like yours or planning media in general.

Media Buying

Buying is the next step after planning. This is the process of actually purchasing your space/times in mediums that were chosen during the planning process. Again this is going to be strategic and based on the findings from the research phase. Especially when it comes to mediums like television where it's not only about the message but the fact that it needs to play at the specific times that are most effective in reaching the target demo.

Ad Copy

These are the words that are actually used in your advertisements. Copy and what it conveys explicitly and implicitly is extremely important. If Copy is translated into different languages nuances can be lost in translation. If Copy is developed that's culturally insensitive or tone def it can cause huge issues for the brand. If copy is outdated or doesn't apply to current offers or deals that can be very problematic Making sure your full-service marketing firm is on point with copy and copy changes is going to be key.

OOH

This term is short for Out Of Home. Which as the name implies is media a person (hopefully in your target demo) is going to see once they're outside of their home. This refers to mediums like Billboards, Bus Kings, Digital Signage, Kiosk ads, wild postings. The copy is usually short but impactful and the placements are done in 4-week intervals with varying spend amounts depending on a number of different factors.

Public Relations

This refers to efforts that are made to craft the public image and perception of your brand not through media buys but through what's known as "earned media". Which simply put is media that you did not pay for. This can be in the form of a news or magazine article a press release or mention on television news program, sponsorship's, community service etc.

Digital

Digital is a broadly used catch-all term that essentially means the efforts your full-service firm will use to craft your message online. Through means of Search engine optimization, social media posting, social media listening, blogging and keyword research among other means, your firm can craft a digital persona for the brand that will be consistent with the messaging in your offline media but be formatted and optimized for all the digital platforms chosen during the media planning process.

This post could easily be several dozen pages long to dig deep into all the industry Jargon used in Full-Service Marketing, but with this baseline of terms you can move forward comfortably and have awareness and consideration stage conversation when talking about your marketing needs. Are there any other full-service marketing terms that could be included in this list based on your experience? Please share those in the comment section we love getting insight and input from our readers.